Unexpected Encounter 9
06 Apr 2016Rebecca Hail
After thirty long, exhausting minutes climbing up the ladder in the dark hoistway, Rebecca finally touched the cold metal of the top maintenance hatch.She hooked her snap link into the wallbar, took down her headset and just waited for several minutes while catching breath, listening to the surrounding sounds and observing the weak light which seeped through the joints of the hatch.
Apart from Kenneths heavy breath beneath her, she heard gun shots far beneath her. The sounds of the surrounding battle were surprisingly muffled, but she still felt the vibrations of the explosions in the district and the fire of the tanks.
She could no observe irregularities in the light or hear breathing sounds and voices so she assumed that the engine room behind the hatch was empty.
"Flashlight." she whispered into the mic of her headset and heard how Kenneth started to check his equipment.
The flashlight on her visor activated and she began carefully searching the joints of the hatch. She remembered exactly what Sgt Baezas wife taught her about mines, IEDs and booby traps before she got killed.
It didn't take long before she found what she was searching for. Almost invisible there were two metal flakes, together not wider than a millimetre, placed between the hatch and it's frame.
"What's taking so long up there?", Kenneth asked quietly but impatient from beneath her.
"It's rigged. Looks like a pressure release detonator and I don't want to witness from this close if it's armed or not." She whispered back in an annoyed tone. "Just give me a minute."
Carefully she tried to look into the joint by pressing her cheek against the hatch but the angle prevented her from seeing into it.
"Sh*t, I can't see the cables. Do you have a mirror or something?" Rebecca whispered to Kenneth while looking down to him.
"Yeah, in the pocket on my *ss. Under all the equipment you couldn't carry. Could take a while till I can reach it." came the sarcastic answer.
As Rebecca looked over his equipment bags and gear her look fell onto the knife in the sheath strapped to his leg. It wasn't the standard issued knife but instead a bad ass looking, almost 30 cm long heavy knife which could be used to pierce through a bulletproof light armor. As far as she knew he had taken it from some rebel he killed in the guerilla fights. He loved his knife and she could swear she heard him talking a few times to it. The point was: This knife was probably better polished then the cutlery in the presidential palace of the federation. He noticed her look and followed it back to his knife.
"Oh no no no no no. NO WAY."
Rebecca grinned.
"Your knife."
"That's out of question. Use your own. Do you know how long I polished this knife?"
"Yes. That's exactly why I want it. The knife. NOW."
"Still out of question."
"Private, your knife. NOW." She raised her voice a bit and it echoed through the hoistway.
"Fine, fine. Just stop screaming around. Damn, do you want us to get killed? And if you drop it, I'll throw you right behind it."
"Was that a threat?"
"That was a promise."
He pulled his knife out of his sheath and handed the knife up to her.
Rebecca looked over the knife, seeing her own reflection on it.
"Seriously, you're a knife freak." she said while looking through the reflection on the knife into the joint.
Two small cables, a red and a black, went right from the metal flakes out of the joint.
"The knifefreak saved you from guessing were the bad cables are. Don't complain."
"Oh, I'm not complaining. By the way, how sharp is this monstrosity?" she asked while she looked carefully over the blades edge.
"Very sharp. Why are you asking?"
"No particular reason." she answered while placing the knife's blade between the upper metal flake and the hatch.
Then she pressed the hatch slightly upwards while carefully pushing the knife into the joint and holding the pressure on the two metal flakes.
"Give me a plaster out of the medikit. A big one." She ordered Kenneth.
He searched a minute around his equipment until he reached up a plaster.
Rebecca pressed hatch up with her head, while holding down the detonator with the knife in the one hand and grabbing the plaster with the other hand. She removed the package of the plaster with her teeth and placed it over the detonator. With her head and her free hand she lifted the hatch out of his frame and peeked into the engine room. Empty.
She opened the hatch fully and pressed the detonator with her now free hand. Beneath her Kenneth started moving up with all his equipment.
He pushed past Rebecca through the hatch, then he carefully removed the firing pins out of the charge surrounding the hatch.
Rebecca took the detonator and threw it down the hoistway, then she climbed through the hatch.
Rebecca looked around in the room. There wasn't much in it apart from a broom, the switched off console for the elevator machinery and some empty bottles. The bright sunlight falling through a small window above the sliding door leading onto the roof hurt in her eyes after the darkness in the hoistway. Whirled up dust was floating through the air and through the dirty pane she could see the blue sky over New Philipsburg and the side of the incredible high central tower.
She unfastened a small oval, matte black device from her visor, then she drew out the cable connecting it and the visor. The left part of her visor turned black and displayed the field of vision of the small black device. She raised her hand with the device up to the dirty window and analysed the image of the roof. Because the elevator was located on the back of the building she had a good view over the whole roof.
Two men, dressed in army clothes, were standing in front of something what seemed like a transmitting antenna, armed with long tubes equipped with binocular sights and carefully watching the sky. Behind them, near the antenna there were several more tubes lying on the roof. On the other site of the roof near the edge stood a man, dressed in civil, aiming down into the district through the huge scope of a long rifle. He shot, then he smiled and pulled back his rifle to move to another part of the roof. The last person on the roof was a boy, not older than twelve or thirteen years old, who sat with his head between his knees and hands pressed onto his ears, near the door leading to the staircase. She couldn't see his face, but his movements indicated that he was sobbing. A low calibre submachinegun leaned against the wall next to him.
She pressed a button on her visor and device and cable got pulled back to the visor before she turned to Kenneth who was still aiming his silenced pistol at the door.
"Four Romeos. Two near, low threat, armed with Fire-and-forget rocketlaunchers. Two far, one near the edge of the roof, armed with a precision rifle. One sitting near the door leading to the staircase, armed with a submachinegun." she summed up the situation in a whisper.
"How much cover? And your plan?"
"No cover. You take out the sharpshooter, I'll take out the guy sitting next to the staircase. Whoever has his target down first, takes care of the two with the rocketlaunchers. They have these binocular sights, so I don't expect them to react too fast. The real threat is the sharpshooter. If he manages to turn his rifle, we're both dead."
"What's with the transmitter? That's why we're here."
"Directly behind the guys with the rocketlaunchers. Shouldn't be a problem."
"Can I use this ..." he patted on the assault rifle which hung from his back, "... or are you in sneaky mood today?"
She paused for a second, playing through different scenarios of what could happen out there.
"Use your silenced pistol. I don't want to attract the attention of the people who might be in the story beneath us. I want this to go clean and fast without dying."
"And after we take them out?"
"You're going to do whatever you were ordered to do with that transmitter and I'm going to prepare some nasty surprises for everyone coming up the staircase."
"MULTIPLE nasty surprises? Are they at least original?", he asked while pulling up one eyebrow.
Rebecca forced herself to grin.
"Actually it's just one. But they're going to be very surprised about it."
"And you dare to call me a freak. Alright let's do this."
Kenneth stood up and started to cast his equipment on the console. As soon as he was done, he came back, drew his pistol and stood besides the sliding door.
Adrenaline rushed through their veins and Rebecca forced herself to slow down her breath.
She put three fingers up.
"Three ..."
Kenneth moved his left hand to the handle of the sliding door.
"Two ..."
Rebecca tightened her fingers around the pistol grip.
"One ..."
Both of them took one last deep breath.
"Go."
Kenneth teared back the handle with full force and the door slid into the wall.
Bright light fell into the engine room and the dust floating in the air was swirled up again by the cracking gun shots from the two pistols.
The shots were nowhere near silent but not as loud as an unsilenced guns.
The sharpshooter looked up with a surprised look on his face when the third of Kenneths six fired shots hit his throat. He collapsed with the same surprised look and with a disgusting gargle while blood spouted out of his wound.
Rebecca differed from the plan and shot at the two rebels with the rocket launchers first. They were easy targets, wide open, unprepared, chests turned in her direction. Both of them got shot two times into the chest before they even could drop their launchers. Then she aimed her pistol at the boy sitting near the staircase while stepping out of the engine room.
"Touch that weapon and you're dead.", she yelled and the boy looked up with a frightened look on his face.
She heard two more shots and her head turned towards Kenneth who finished the guys with the rocket launchers lying on the ground off.
From the corner of her eye, she saw how the boy took his chance and reached out for the SMG.
She closed her eyes and pulled the trigger.